by Allan Retzky
Further introductions are brief. Posner clearly prefers that he not be there, but Henry is now used to this attitude after his time with Welbrook.
“Do you remember this woman?” he asks when the preliminaries are over.
Posner looks briefly at the photo Henry presents. Almost too briefly, Henry thinks, but he sees Posner clearly stare at the image with the pink-and-white dress.
“Oh, that’s definitely her,” he says, echoing Welbrook’s recollection.
As with Welbrook, Henry has prepared himself for some confession of sorts, an act of contrition, and an acknowledgment that the man had some involvement with Heidi, but there is nothing. In this regard, Posner behaves much the same as Welbrook. He relates his recollection of their brief bus conversation. Heidi appears to have asked both men for a ride to the beach. He sighs and wonders whom else she spoke to after she left the bus. Conversation then stalls. Henry stands and walks toward the steps. He moves down the stairs without incident, stands beside the front door, turns, and asks, “Would you mind if I called on you again? There maybe something else you might remember.”
Posner doesn’t answer. He merely shrugs his shoulders a moment before the door clicks shut.
CHAPTER 5
Peter Wisdom watches the lazy fly ball float toward his son Kevin in right field. Kevin moves to his left, hesitates as he squints into the late afternoon sun, wavers for a moment as he surely loses sight of the ball, then lunges to the side and stabs it inches above the ground. The gathering of parents and friends applaud the effort.
Wisdom joins in, then turns around, faces the setting orange ball, and thinks again of the missing woman. She has become hard to forget. Perhaps the sun has been in his eyes too long. He’s missing something and realizes it’s become personal. He admits that the woman holds some physical attraction for him.
He remembers an old film where a police detective investigates the suspected murder of a beautiful woman and becomes obsessed with her portrait, until events change and she turns up alive. In this case, the missing woman doctor named Heidi Kashani has not turned up, yet Wisdom feels an uncontrolled obsession beginning to grow. Perhaps that is why he carries the color photo of her in the pink-and-white dress that Stern gave him. There is an exotic sexuality in her eyes, and from the way Stern describes her, he can understand Stern’s own obsession. Moreover he can understand why other men might easily become attracted.
He notes that he should ask NYPD for a detailed check on Stern, and particularly his whereabouts on the day the woman disappeared. Obsession can beget violence. He has seen it too often. Still, there is no evidence of a crime, much less a death. Wisdom knows they would need considerable circumstantial evidence in the absence of physical proof. All the more reason for him to inquire about the whereabouts of Dr. Henry Stern on a chilly day this past May. Since so many capital crimes involve people who know each other, this is as good a place to start as anywhere else. He knows that the NYPD won’t be too happy. If someone goes missing outside of the city, then another jurisdiction has the problem, but in the end they’ll still help out.
He becomes lost in thought as the teams change sides. Since early in the case he’s assumed that the woman is dead. It might not even have been murder. She might have become lost in the woods and fallen into a sinkhole. All he knows is that she disappeared after leaving the bus in East Hampton, and apparently after trying to induce two separate men to drive her to the beach. She might even have gone back to Austria as some of his colleagues at County have suggested, although there is no record of her being on any scheduled flight. The fact that her parents have not offered to come to America puzzles him. The reasonable conclusion is that they know where she is, but they neither offer nor ask for help from the police.
By all accounts the woman was reasonably content at work and had a rather active social life, especially with Henry Stern. Yes, he tells himself, we’ll start with a closer look at Dr. Stern. If he was involved in Heidi’s disappearance, his behavior since then would give him an opportunity to deflect suspicion. Stern’s actions in providing the photos and insisting on interviewing other passengers all represent the expected activity of a concerned boyfriend, except that Wisdom could hear an obsession in the man’s voice that gives him pause. His contacts at NYPD will give it all a good look. No one has yet suggested that they call in the FBI. Hell. There isn’t even any evidence of a kidnapping.
He looks up just in time to see his son swinging a bat as he moves into the on-deck area. There is only an inning to go and he wants to watch the whole game. In the summer he never knows how many Little League games he’ll get to. You never stop being on the job even when you’re off the clock.
The next morning Detective Wisdom sits at his desk, yawns, and reaches for the Starbuck’s iced cappuccino. It’s Thursday, a late-June Thursday, and every Thursday he promises himself a stop at the East Hampton Starbuck’s even though it’s a bit out of the way. He’s already savored the last few crumbs of the bran muffin. He flips open his notebook and rereads his neat printed summary of what he needs to do that day. For the moment he ignores the files that lie on the corner of his desk regarding detailed follow-up of police-related activities; a break-in and robbery at an expensive house in East Hampton, a possible hate crime assault of a local Hispanic landscaper in the Springs, and a fight outside a bar in Montauk in the early morning of the past Saturday. Things will be getting worse. The season has just begun. There will be fights, robberies, even the rare possibility of a murder. There will likely be more overtime, although he would prefer there wasn’t. He’s already missed two of his son’s Little League games.
He closes the pad and sighs. Something gnaws at him. The missing woman from New York. He hasn’t made any progress. Then a small kernel of an idea grows. He picks up the phone and dials the extension of the department’s tech specialist.
After two rings, Ray Baxter picks up.
“Ray. Peter Wisdom. Can you please clarify something for me? If someone used a two or three-year-old Verizon wireless cell phone six weeks ago, can you still tell me where the call was made from? Sorry, but we don’t have the phone. I’d rather ask you first than depend on Verizon. I’ll talk to them when we know more.” Wisdom fills in more of the details and leaves the rest to the resident techie.
Ray calls back the next morning.
“Sorry it took so long, but I wanted to check something with the Feds before getting back. You were right to ask. The technology changes so fast these days that something new could turn up tomorrow. Anyway, the story is this: If the woman’s phone was a few years old, it probably didn’t have one of the new embedded chips. If she did, the new tracking systems would enable Verizon to pinpoint the source of the call to within fifty feet or less. Assuming she didn’t have the chip, and the call was made a few months ago, the best they could do would be to determine that the call was transmitted through a local tower. In this case it was probably in Amagansett.”
“Remind me. Where’s the tower?” asks Wisdom, oblivious to his admission that he didn’t remember exactly where, although he’d knew about the construction several years before.
Ray gives the location. It’s a quasi-industrial area away from the larger summer homes. The rich don’t want a tall radio tower in their backyard.
“What’s the area range that it covers?” asks Wisdom.
“That’s the problem,” said Ray. “It’s a pretty big area. Look at it as a pie shape with a diameter of two to three miles. Around here that especially covers a lot of space with water views. You did say the call came from a house with water views, didn’t you?”
Wisdom sighs and breathes faint curses into the receiver. Ray doesn’t need to repeat the question.
“As long as the Feds aren’t involved there’s not usually a problem and city hasn’t suggested calling them in as yet. Nor should we or County. So far there’s absolutely no hint of a kidnapping. Damn!”
Chief Ferris manages to get all but the last few words
out before a drop of yolk from his fried egg breakfast sandwich leaks onto his shirt. He looks down, wets his handkerchief with a daub from his tongue, and blots the spot as he shakes his head.
“Lucky I always keep extra shirts in the office closet, but first let’s see how it dries.”
He’s called Wisdom into his office on a cool August day to fill him in on the “Heidi case” as they called it in the office. He doesn’t often get so involved in a case, but Wisdom is happy for the input. The chief has been around and knows the score. He pulls a folder up from his clean desk and reads from the combined NYPD and town reports.
“After nearly three months of waiting, nothing’s turned up. When she disappeared, she had over thirty thousand dollars in her bank account at Chase, and more to the point there weren’t any recent major cash withdrawals. The last one was the day before she took the bus and that was only for a hundred. All of the last checks she wrote were for normal commercial expenses like rent, Con Edison, Verizon, and the Food Emporium. She has one credit card, a Chase Visa. Not much there except for some department store clothing purchases. Again nothing since she went missing. Certainly no purchase of airline or railroad tickets.
“They haven’t heard anymore from her parents in Europe, which boggles the mind, nor have they opted to call in the Feds. What they have done is follow an idea you had to check out Dr. Stern more closely. Initially they thought it was far-fetched. After all he was the one who first reported her missing. They had a strong emotional relationship and he brought in the cell phone message where she said she was in some nice house out here with a water view.”
“We know all that,” says Wisdom. “Did they find anything?”
“More than a little. First thing is that Stern can’t confirm an alibi for that day. Says he wasn’t on call on the day she disappeared. Says he rented a car and drove upstate to the area where he grew up, had a bite at some diner and came back late afternoon. Didn’t talk to anyone who would remember him, didn’t use a credit card for anything. Nada.”
“So what’s wrong with the picture?”
“The mileage to start with. Several weeks later he rented another car also from the same Avis East Side pick-up location. You’ll remember that’s when he came out here with the FOIA list and spoke to some people from the bus. The mileage on the day he came out here was almost the same as the time when he claimed he went upstate.”
“Meaning he could have been here and not upstate on the day she disappeared. Meaning he could have followed her out to East Hampton and trailed her from the bus stop. But what about the cell phone call he got from her? Wouldn’t his phone have shown that he was out here when he received the call?”
“Claims he forgot the phone that day. Says he was pissed that she didn’t want him to come along and accidentally left it back in his apartment and only got her message when he got home.”
“That sounds lame. He’s a doctor for chrissakes. He needs to be available twenty-four seven.”
“Says he did have his pager but had no messages.”
“Anything else?”
“NYPD also says they made some discreet inquiries about the relationship between the two of them. Seems they were getting it off pretty regularly, but she wasn’t doing it only with him. She was pretty accommodating to anyone on the staff who showed any interest. So much so they had some fights that weren’t so private, but they haven’t hit him yet with any of this.”
“Jesus!” Wisdom shakes his head sideways in a universal sign of disapproval. “So are we still involved at all?”
“Not directly, but there are two more things you should know about. When New York was talking to Stern, he volunteered that he had a feeling that either of two guys from the bus probably knew more than they were letting on. They’d like us to talk to them again. It’s Welbrook and Posner. Before you say anything, I know you already spoke to both of them and they were clean, but we’d be doing the city boys a favor, and I like it when they owe us. And before you see them, do some research on their backgrounds. If by any chance they’re lying to us, I want to know enough so we can catch them in it. I spoke to County and they’re with us on this.”
The report on Wisdom’s meetings with Posner and Welbrook rests in a growing folder he holds in his lap. Posner remains a very long shot possible suspect in Heidi’s disappearance based solely on the chance bus meeting, although Wisdom has no reason to put much faith in this theory. He doesn’t need to find the interview report with Welbrook to remember that particular exchange.
Benjamin Welbrook agreed to meet with Wisdom on short notice. His house is larger than Posner’s and has more panoramic ocean views, but both houses exude a level of wealth found with some prevalence throughout the area. Wisdom’s summary describes Welbrook as a very poised middle-aged individual involved in entertainment law. He dresses in simple, yet elegant clothing; white linen pants and a blue designer shirt with the sleeves rolled to the elbows. He uses the house in Amagansett to entertain clients and for weekend getaways with his partner whom Wisdom meets during the meeting.
Welbrook introduces his partner as Steven Hoyle. Hoyle has dark hair and wears a tee shirt and worn jeans with a large hole over one knee. He appears slightly younger than Welbrook and is an editorial associate for a major publishing firm. They offer coffee and sit on the opposite couch from Wisdom. Welbrook drapes an arm around Hoyle’s shoulder, which he periodically massages. The effect is obvious. Wisdom has no interest in the man’s sexual orientation except that it minimizes Welbrook’s possible interest in Heidi Kashani, although that doesn’t mean elimination. Welbrook still remains a minor focus, but is now in the second tier, if such a distinction is possible.
In Wisdom’s opinion Dr. Stern is still front and center the most likely to be involved. All this flashes through Wisdom’s mind in seconds, but the chief doesn’t seem to notice any delay in his answer.
“Let me think about how to approach this. Stern is a more likely suspect that these other two. Sounds like he’s just trying to throw us off. Did the city cops happen to mention whether Stern did anything to indicate that he felt he was a possible suspect?”
“Nothing they picked up on. But if I wanted to off my girlfriend, one good way to cover up might be to report her missing and then try to steer the blame to someone else. That’s if I had a girlfriend I wanted to disappear, which I don’t, and if I had one that looked like Heidi, I absolutely wouldn’t.”
Wisdom stands and sighs in one motion, almost as if his body was controlled by some outside puppeteer. He starts to walk toward the door then stops and turns sharply.
“You said there were two more things. Another go-round with these two dudes is one. What’s the other?”
Ferris smiles into his nearly empty coffee cup.
“The hospital got a call. Seems Heidi has a sister and she’ll be arriving in the city in a week and plans on visiting us the following Tuesday.”
Wisdom glances at the wall calendar, which is distributed by a local nonprofit. Smack in the middle of the last week in August, as busy a week as they’re likely to get all summer.
“The Austrian Consulate in the city has asked that she be given the full treatment. Actually the call to the hospital came from State. The sister’s a special assistant to some UN bigwig in Geneva. And if you’re at all curious why I’m so interested in this case, then you can blame the State Department. Enjoy your weekend.”
CHAPTER 6
Brigid Kashani sits on the chair in Ferris’s office. She is flanked on one side by a man from the Austrian Consulate who introduces himself as Bernd Weis. He’s dressed all in charcoal gray except for a dazzling white shirt that is slashed by a tie that matches his suit color. Sergeant Rick Bennett, who runs the squad of seven detectives on the town force and is Wisdom’s boss, sits on her other side facing Wisdom and Ferris. Lieutenant Walker might otherwise have taken the chief’s place, but international embassy visitors call for a certain protocol.
Bennett’s hair is start
ing to gray and his belly just begins to push against a wrinkled shirt bunched at his gut, but his appearance is deceptive. His mind is both fertile and agile, always on the alert to ambush a contradiction in a story. After twenty years on the job, he’s become a very good cop. Bennett actually started with the department in East Hampton Village as a teenage summer traffic control officer—what the locals still call “a sand cop”—writing parking tickets. Today he’s arguably one of the best general detectives in the whole county and the town is lucky that he never left.
Wisdom looks again at Brigid while Ferris relays soft drink requests on the phone to his secretary. Brigid looks very much like Heidi down to the same short black helmet of hair Wisdom memorized from the photo; a slightly larger than normal nose, full lips, wide dark eyes and a light-brown Middle Eastern coloring. There is one major obvious difference. Brigid Kashani wears a business suit over a blouse buttoned to her neck. There is no hint at sexuality either in her choice of clothing or her makeup, which are both understated and practical. Yet when he looks only at her eyes, Wisdom sees a hint of the veiled sensuality that Stern and presumably others have seen in Heidi.
Soft drinks arrive at the same time as a written message for Ferris that causes him to make excuses and exit, leaving Wisdom and Bennett to run the meeting. Bennett winks at Wisdom. It’s an old game they’ve played before to keep the chief out of the details.
She begins to speak. Wisdom hears a German accent for sure, but it sounds as much British as German. Presumably she’d learned her English from a Brit. There’s also the absence of any of the rough throaty edges usually associated with German. Bennett comments on this and she explains that years in the French speaking part of Switzerland together with a year and a half of graduate school in Boston has softened her Austrian inflection.